Electric Sulking Machine

Just one year after the great "Revelry", Beyond Dawn return with a new full length, "Electric Sulking Machine", out on Peaceville. As with each previous album, the band's sound keeps changing and evolving, further and further away from their black metal and doom roots and in the direction of pop-tinged alternative rock. In fact, "Electric Sulking Machine" is not even a metal album anymore. Nor is it a post-rock album with doom influences, like their previous release "Revelry". No, "Electric Sulking Machine" is 100% an alternative rock album, though a fairly weird one.

But the relevant question is: "Is it a good album, as strong as their previous two full-lengths?". I am afraid the answer is "not quite".

The songs on "Electric Sulking Machine" are much more subdued and vanilla compared to those on "Revelry" or "Pity Love", almost like if the band decided to switch to autopilot while writing the album, without putting their full hearts and souls behind it. This is akin to a mortal sin for a band that, up to this point, had always strove to compose passionate and boundary-pushing music that rarely failed to trigger strong emotions, be them positive or negative. It's hard to feel passionate or emotionally-involved with the 10 songs of this album. They mostly flow away pleasantly but innocuously. The end result was somewhat anti-climatic for me: my expectations of repeating the emotional roller-coaster of an album like "Revelry" were largely disappointed.

Groovy bass loops and guitar arpeggios with occasional bursts of distortion constitute the backbone of most songs. In several, there is also a heavy dose of electronic embellishments in the form of synths and drum-machine loops (check out the videogame-like loop on "Aagé"). Espen Ingierd's vocals are somewhat less dominant than on previous albums, with guest female vocalists Lisa Ericsson and Kate Havnevik playing a larger role and appearing in 3 out of 10 songs. The trombone - Beyond Dawn's trademark instrument - is also underused on this album, appearing only in a handful of songs, which is a pity since it gave such a unique feel to the band's sound.

The album has a slow start, with the first 4 songs being particularly unremarkable. This certainly adds to the feel of sedateness that transpires from the album. Few songs standout: "Fairy Liquid" is probably the first highlight of the album, with its syncopated rhythm and obsessive bass line. "Cigarette" is the track that gets closer, in both sound and mood, to the songs found on "Revelry", and is the piece I like the most on this album. "Pacific Blue Disorder" also grabs attention, with its lively uptempo and the generous use of trumpet and trombone to add color. "Hairy Liquor" is a reprise of "Fairy Liquid", with slightly altered arrangements.

Overall, this was a bit of a disappointment for me. It is a competent but fairly unremarkable album. I wouldn't recommend this as the place to start to get to know this band, as this is probably their less inspired piece of work.